


Empty Hands in Mine

by crazygirlne



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But mostly optimistic and fluffy, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Marriage of Convenience, With discussions of past abuse, and Sara and Leonard becoming co-parents who are married and in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 00:30:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10560336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazygirlne/pseuds/crazygirlne
Summary: When Sara finds out a friend of a friend (of a friend) is looking for a spouse to make it easier for him to take permanent custody of his younger sister, she can't help but be intrigued.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For @ficcingcaptaincanary’s Marriage of Convenience.
> 
> Idea inspired by [Chash](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash)’s [Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5649892), but basically only the marriage-for-adoption thing carries over. If you’re a Bellarke fan, check out everything Chash has written!
> 
> Ages are a bit different than in the show in order to make everything work; Sara and Len are early/mid-20s, and Lisa is 8.

Sara Lance’s extended friend group is huge, with a lot of random connections, so when word starts trickling through that Leonard Snart is looking for a marriage of convenience just when she’s decided to move out of the apartment she shares with Laurel, she doesn’t dismiss it immediately.

It takes her a minute to even remember who Leonard is when Laurel is telling her; Laurel heard it from Thea, who heard it from Felicity, who heard it from Barry, who heard it directly from Leonard himself. She does remember, though, she sees a flash of intense eyes, a knowing smirk, remembers an odd sense of connection she never followed up on.

Hmm.

She doesn’t let Laurel know what she’s thinking, since Laurel would probably talk her out of marrying a virtual stranger (go figure), but she does reach out to Felicity, asking whether Barry can arrange for a meeting between herself and Leonard. It happens faster than she expects, and there’s an air of urgency and secrecy that does nothing to diminish her curiosity.

And then she’s sitting in Jitters, waving Leonard over when she spots him come in, despite the fact that he’s clearly already recognized her, those damned eyes of his finding her immediately.

For a few minutes, she tries to make small talk, but this seems to frustrate him; he tenses up until Sara’s fairly certain he’s about to leave.

“Okay, let’s cut to the chase, then,” she says, and she sees a flash of surprise in his eyes. “I heard you needed to get married. Barry said it’s not a green-card marriage, but other than that, he wouldn’t tell me anything.”

She stops, waiting to see whether he’ll take the opening to jump in and fill her in on some of the details.

He nods, watching her appraisingly. “None of this conversation can go beyond me and you,” he says. “Barry knows, but it’s bad enough the marriage thing got around at all. The reasons behind it can’t.” He waits for her to nod before he continues. “My father died recently.”

“I’m sorry,” Sara says, fighting the urge to reach out and take his hand.

It’s easier when his reply is almost a snarl. “I’m not looking for sympathy. He deserved it.”

Sara blinks. “Okay.” She makes sure her voice is matter-of-fact, and he relaxes visibly. She can tell Leonard isn’t a bad person, and she’s learned to trust her instincts over the years. She’s also learned that, as much as it sucks, some people really do deserve bad things.

“He was a thief,” Leonard explains. His eyes flicker to the table, then back up to her. “So was I, but it was never by choice. He was also a murderer and an abusive, alcoholic father.” He drops his gaze again. “It finally caught up to him.”

“Okay,” Sara says after a minute of silence. So Leonard is (was?) a thief. It still doesn’t make him a bad person, like his father so obviously was, and she’s still going to go with her gut, here. “Where does marriage come in?”

He meets her eyes once more, looking surprised she hasn’t bailed yet. “I have a sister,” he explains. “Lisa. She’s eight. I have temporary custody, and the fact that I got dragged into any of my dad’s shit doesn’t look good, even if I was only ever caught for little stuff. I’ve cleaned up, got a regular job, but I’m hoping being married might help make me look more like a stable parent.”

Leonard takes a breath. “They don’t have to give her to me permanently. They could take her away and make it impossible to see her. I considered taking her on the run, falling back on what I know, so I can keep us together.” He shakes his head. “But if I drag her into that sort of life,” he says, looking down at his napkin, “then I’m no better than our father.”

“And there’s nobody else you can turn to?” Sara asks. “No family? No significant other you could ask for help?”

Leonard shakes his head, and his lips pull up to one side, the closest to a smile she’s seen out of him today. “I think Barry would’ve agreed to marry me, if I asked, but Iris would’ve killed him. Feeling out his friends was probably his way of trying to make it up to me.”

“So you need a spouse so you can keep your sister.” Sara taps a finger lightly on the table as she thinks. Honestly, she wants to just go with her gut and agree here and now, but even though they have mutual friends, she knows she needs to cover at least a few bases first. “What would you expect out of me?”

Leonard’s wearing a look of almost surprised gratitude that she’s even considering it, and Sara vows to herself that, however this pans out, she’ll find a way to do nice things for him until he stops looking surprised when she does it.

“We wouldn’t need to consummate the marriage,” he drawls, “if that’s what you’re asking.”

Sara hopes her smirk hides the mild (and completely irrational, come on, Sara) disappointment that there won’t be sex involved. “Well, yes, that was part of it.” She lets her smile drop. “But I assume I’d move in with you? And she’s eight, and you have a job, so are you asking for childcare after school?” She grins again. “Also, I can’t cook, so if you were looking for a personal chef, you should keep trying.”

Leonard huffs. “I can cook and enjoy it,” he says. “Yes, you’d move in if you agreed, because there’s no way anyone would buy the relationship otherwise. As for childcare, I’ve got a system in place. I already took care of her more than dear old Dad did, so it hasn’t been too much of an adjustment, in that way.” He hesitates. “Stuff can always come up with kids, so I can’t promise I’ll never ask, but I’m looking for someone to marry me, not to babysit.”

Sara nods, trying to think. “Would we… We’re talking about getting legally married, right?”

“Yes,” Leonard answers.

“And we’ll have to pretend it’s real,” Sara continues, “or else what’s the point?” Leonard’s just watching her silently as she works through everything. “You know my family’s basically all in some part of law enforcement, right? Dad’s a detective, sister’s assistant to the district attorney.”

“Barry told me. He also said you wouldn’t tell them I’m probably committing fraud.” His voice is cold, but it falls short of threatening, and she can appreciate how much trust it must have taken to tell her all this.

“I won’t tell them.” Again, she fights the urge to take his hand, instead letting him continue shredding a napkin, the only hint he’s at all nervous about this. “But that means we need a story.”

“Need…” His eyes really are intense, and Sara can hardly breathe with them on her like this. “You’re agreeing to this?”

Sara shrugs a shoulder. “I’d like to meet Lisa first and make sure she doesn't hate me, because that’d be miserable. But I’ve made money babysitting before, and kids usually like me. Plus, I wouldn’t mind seeing where you live first. If that all goes well, though?” She doesn’t let herself think too much about how her family is probably gonna kill her, how they’re gonna have to pretend to be together when they’re around their friends (not that she’s going to have to fake a connection to him, at least, and she thinks that maybe being legally his wife will help, somehow). “Yeah, you’ve got yourself a wife.”

Leonard blinks, and the tension drains out of him, a genuine smile playing at his lips.

She asks him more questions, trying to distract herself from that smile, and he asks her questions about herself, anything Barry wasn’t already able to tell him. By the time they leave, she knows he’s an early riser, and he knows she puts a lot of her free time into martial arts. She knows he’s already middle management in his office, and he knows she has a couple different part-time jobs in addition to some volunteer work at a dojo.

She knows she’s playing with fire agreeing to marry him, but she also knows there’s no way she’s _not_ going to help him, at this point.

Meeting Lisa the next day goes well. Lisa is mischievous and full of energy, and Sara enjoys the half hour the three of them spend playing with Lisa’s dolls, Barbies who’ve seen better days.

As for the house, it’s an old but well-kept two-bedroom home. Leonard doesn’t tell her they’ll share a bed (and honestly, the couch is big enough that they might not have to), but he looks at her with a little bit of challenge in his eyes when she sees the large bed in his room.

She lifts her chin, and they seem to come to some silent agreement.

It’s only a few days after that, then, that they find themselves at the courthouse while Lisa’s in school. Barry is one witness, and Laurel (who knows some of the story, but nothing about the _why_ ) is the other, and the first kiss Sara and Leonard share is the one that seals them together as man and wife.

***

Leonard pulls back, ending the kiss with his _wife,_ and honestly, this whole arrangement would be easier if he weren’t actually attracted to her.

It was supposed to be a business arrangement, a legal marriage in exchange for housing and… Honestly, he wasn’t so sure she was getting very much out of all this. He’d seen her around, of course, knew who she was when Barry mentioned her, but they’d never spent any time one-on-one.

After their conversation in Jitters, he briefly considered telling her he’d changed his mind, but he really thinks this is the best shot at presenting a stable, reformed image so he can keep his sister with him, and it’s not like he has good chances of finding someone else he can trust before the next interview with social services.

Finding himself attracted to her, body and spirit, was a surprise, though, one that put him on edge until he saw how she was with Lisa. His baby sister adored her already, and Sara would help him maintain custody, so really, backing out of the arrangement was never going to happen, not for him.

He’ll have to deal with it, then, wanting a relationship with the woman he married, knowing that anything they do to assuage any (mutual, he thinks, but he’s not sure) attraction can never be just casual, not when they have a piece of paper that says they’ve committed their lives to each other.

At least they don’t really have to pretend around their friends, who know something of the convenience aspect. Anyone they _do_ need to put on a show for is too professional for PDA to be acceptable, anyway, so he’s not going to find himself in one of those romcoms where they have to make out all the time just to keep up appearances.

As it is, even the chaste kiss at the end of their vows is a temptation. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t even _really_ known her for a week; if his sister’s future weren’t on the line, he’d have gone for much more than a perfunctory kiss.

And he’s not used to that.

His dad made sure that Leonard never craved contact, and the bastard had been working on doing the same to Lisa. She isn’t quite afraid of contact, but she doesn’t seek it out, either, not even with Barry and Mick, who are like uncles to her.

He and Sara have agreed to a reception with their friends, because he’s an idiot. It helps, though, having the people around to help him forget his attraction to his bride. Besides, it’s a good way to test out how they’ll be with the whole group, and to let the group know how to treat them.

Their story is simple, one that’ll let the people who know anything about the arrangement forget to mention anything about convenience if they happen to be interviewed: they met up to talk about a business arrangement and ended up liking each other.

Oddly, even without putting on a show, their friends seem to accept that they liked each other enough to do this. Leonard’s eyes keep finding Sara’s across the room, and after one of these times, Raymond chuckles, loudly enough to draw Leonard’s attention.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just that I never really believed in love at first sight, but the way you two look at each other? It’s great.”

Arguing doesn’t suit Leonard’s purposes, so he doesn’t. He does, however, decide he’s been there long enough. After a raised eyebrow at Sara (and he’s not going to think about how easy it already is to communicate with her without words), they head out, getting home to relieve Caitlin of her babysitting duties. Lisa’s half asleep on the couch, and Leonard smiles fondly at her before moving her to bed.

“Lenny?” she says quietly when she’s tucked in. “Is Sara my new mommy?”

Leonard swallows. Lisa’s never had a mother in her life, and he can’t quite tell from her tone whether she’s excited or apprehensive about Sara’s addition to their lives.

“She’s your new big sister.” Honesty is often the easiest route. “And I think she’d like to be your friend.”

Lisa frowns, then nods. “She’ll be your friend, too, right?”

“Yes, Lisa,” he breathes. “My wife, and your sister, and both of our friends.”

Sara’s standing in the hallway when he leaves Lisa’s room, looking a little guilty. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was gonna come say goodnight, but I overheard, and then I figured pretending I didn’t hear was worse, and…” She watches him. “I think I’m already your friend, you know. I don’t just go around marrying everyone.”

He smirks, and she follows him to the kitchen.

“You just marry your friends,” he says when they’re far enough from Lisa’s room that she won’t overhear them.

“Exactly,” Sara answers, and when he turns, he sees she’s grinning. “Or at least the ones who need me to.”

Leonard grabs a bottle of water, a thought nagging at him, and he takes a sip before he speaks, not sure whether he’s about to wipe the spark from Sara’s eyes. “Would you really have married any friend who needed it?” he asks. “I suppose I should’ve asked this before saying ‘I do,’ but I realized I still don’t really know what you’re getting out of this.”

For a second, he thinks she’s going to play it off with a joke, but she seems to give her answer serious thought before responding. “You’d caught my attention before,” she says, “and I wanted to move out of my sister’s apartment but couldn’t afford a place on my own, so at least hearing you out seemed to make sense. And then as soon as we really started talking…” She shrugs. “I felt like if I didn’t take you up on it, if I just left you and Lisa to figure it out on your own, it’d be the biggest mistake of my life. I can’t really explain it better than that.”

He takes another sip of water to keep from doing something unintentional like putting his arms around her. It’s not rational, her explanation, but then again, he’s trusting her with Lisa, and despite Barry’s assurances as to her character, that’s not something he usually does with strangers.

Leonard might already be friends with his wife.

That shouldn’t be a bad thing, but it just feels like it’ll be even easier to mess things up this way.

They turn to lighter topics, stories about mutual acquaintances, until it’s time to head to bed. They’re adults, and they can handle sharing his bed. It’s not like it’s small, at least, and they shouldn’t have to touch at all.

Leonard expects it to be awkward anyway, but instead, they bicker about types of toothpaste and joke about who’s going to steal the shower first in the morning, and he falls asleep with a smile on his face.

He probably shouldn’t be quite so surprised when they wake in the morning, tangled together, but in another one of their wordless agreements, they decide not to talk about it.

Which is probably a good thing, because they’d have to talk about it a lot; it seems to happen every night. They also agree not to mention his obvious enjoyment of the situation, or that fact that sometimes she presses back against him before she’s fully awake.

Their days are pleasantly uneventful. She has weekends off, at least, but she tends to work weeknights, so during the week, it’s often just him and Lisa for dinner.

And so what if after he realizes how much she appreciates his cooking, he makes sure he plans at least one nice meal on each Saturday or Sunday, and he makes enough for leftovers during the week.

She finds little things to do, too, for him and for Lisa. She takes over making Lisa’s lunch (“I can at least make a sandwich, Len”), slipping little notes inside for the girl to find. She tosses his laundry in with her own. She starts taking Lisa (not that she’s a lot of work, really, but she can be noisy) on the few mornings he wants to sleep in, and he wanders out when he wakes to find them laughing at cartoons or playing princess versus ninja.

The little princess always wins.

Despite knowing from the start of this that he’s probably in trouble, Leonard doesn’t realize he’s already screwed until an otherwise ordinary Wednesday afternoon. He and Sara are both off work when Lisa finishes school, for once, and they go pick her up together instead of letting her go on the daycare’s bus.

The fact that they both just assume Sara will join him in retrieving Lisa really should’ve been a clue for how much she’s become a part of their lives, but it’s not until Lisa sees them waiting and immediately slips her hand into Sara’s that it clicks. His sister trusts Sara enough for casual contact to be a thing.

It’s been months since she joined them but feels like years, and as Sara looks at him over Lisa’s head, shining eyes telling him she hasn’t missed the significance of Lisa’s actions, he realizes he’s done the impossible.

He’s fallen in love with his wife.

***

Sara didn’t have a perfect childhood, and Leonard’s descriptions of his own childhood sometimes make her uncomfortable with how easily they could’ve traded places. Still, it wasn’t like she ever felt like she didn’t really have a home.

It’s strange to her, then, how quickly the little house she shares with Leonard and Lisa becomes more her home than she ever thought possible. From waking up with Leonard wrapped around her, to her time spent with Lisa, to evenings playing cards with Len far past when they should probably be asleep, it just feels like this is how she always wanted to end up.

She just didn’t realize it until she found it.

Months pass before Lisa takes her hand (and it breaks Sara’s heart that it’s so hard for the spirited little girl to do before then), but after that, Lisa curls into her side trustingly as they watch TV, tugs her to the kitchen to make pancakes, even gives her a bedtime hug on nights Sara’s home (Sara misses Lisa on her days at work, really, so it’s only natural that she starts handling the bedtime routine when she’s there).

It’s kind of a lot, even separate from the fact that she’s pretty sure she’s fallen in love with Leonard.

This whole marriage was for Lisa, though, she has to remind herself. It’s the only reason they’re together. Getting close to Lisa is fine; Sara knows she’s not going anywhere, never leaving the girl, no matter what. Getting close to Leonard is terrifying for the same reason, though.

She’s not leaving, no matter what, and things could get ugly pretty quickly if they tried exploring their feelings and crashed and burned.

At least everything’s going well with Lisa. Leonard doesn’t have permanent custody yet, but it turns out the caseworker knows Sara’s father, so the marriage really does seem to be helping move things in the right direction. It’s a slow process, though, and she knows both the siblings will feel better when it’s official.

Sara will, too.

Meanwhile, their friends and family have all accepted the marriage like it’s an entirely normal thing. Even her dad and her sister, after they saw how she and Leonard are together.

Which, really, that should’ve been a clue. It was easy to tell herself, though, that there was nothing between them when their only physical interaction was what they sought out in their sleep each night.

She sees it eventually, though, sometime after she starts taking Lisa to a children’s martial arts class she teaches, after she sees the way Leonard watches them. Somehow, realizing that his expression of adoration for his sister didn’t fade when he looked at Sara was enough to make Sara evaluate her own feelings.

And okay, maybe she’s more than just pretty sure she’s fallen in love with him.

But she loves Lisa, too, and she isn’t about to do anything to jeopardize the girl’s security, so she continues to push her feelings for him aside, even as she continues to grow closer to him, and him to her.

It’s a Tuesday morning when she gets a call from Lisa’s school, letting her know there’s been a minor accident on the playground.

“She just skinned her knee and seems to be okay,” the nurse tells her, “but she says she wants to go home. I wouldn’t normally encourage it, but given what the poor thing’s been through this year—”

“I’m on my way,” Sara interrupts, texting Leonard to let him know what’s going on as she gets into her car.

_Picking up Lisa from school early. She skinned her knee and nurse says she’s FINE, just wants to come home._

She doesn’t expect a response for a few hours since he can’t usually check his phone at work, so she isn’t surprised that he hasn’t answered by time she gets to the school. She takes a minute to call her boss and let him know she’s taking a sick day, using the time to calm herself so she doesn’t upset Lisa further.

When Lisa sees her, she gets up from the chair where she’s sniffling around a lollipop and runs into Sara’s arms, crying in earnest. Sara blinks away her own tears before crouching slightly to put herself more at Lisa’s level. The girl’s arms wrap around behind Sara’s neck.

“I wanna go home,” Lisa says, and Sara meets the eyes of the woman behind the desk.

“I need to sign her out, right?” Sara asks. She doesn’t let go of Lisa longer than she has to in order to sign; she’s never seen the girl act this much younger than her age, and if clinging to Sara helps, it’s not like she’ll ask her not to.

They make it out to the car, and Lisa reluctantly lets go so she can climb in the back, buckling herself on the portable booster seat.

“Can you tell me what happened,” Sara prompts after they start moving, “or do you want to wait until we get home?”

“Home,” Lisa answers. The rest of the ride is silent, save for occasional sniffles, and as soon as they’re parked and out of the car again, Lisa slips her hand into Sara’s. They curl up on the couch, and it takes a few more minutes before Lisa can talk without crying too hard for Sara to understand. “It’s stupid,” she says. “I know I shouldn’t be so upset, and the kids are gonna all call me a crybaby. I just slipped! There wasn’t even really blood, see?”

Lisa pulls up her jeans so Sara can admire the pink, unbroken skin on her knee.

“Do you know why you got so upset?” Sara asks carefully.

Lisa tears up again but doesn’t start sobbing. “I was thinking about how I didn’t ever have a mom or dad who would kiss it better.” She wipes her eyes. “It’s not like I even _want_ to be kissed better. That’s kinda gross. I’m too big for that.”

Sara feels so much pain for the girl that she has trouble speaking. “But you want someone who cares.”

Lisa nods, and Sara pulls her in for a tight hug.

“I know I’m not your mom,” Sara says, “and I know we’ve only known each other for a little while, but you know I care about you, right, Lisa? Me and your brother, we love you so much.”

Lisa wraps her arms tightly around Sara’s middle. “I’m glad you’re my sister.”

***

Leonard races home after he finally sees Sara’s text, and Sara holds a finger to her lips when he gets into the living room.

Lisa’s asleep, still clinging to Sara. She must have really been emotional; Lisa hasn’t napped in years. Assured his sister is in one piece, Leonard’s eyes find Sara’s.

“She’ll be okay,” Sara says quietly. “She just needed to know someone would be there for her.”

Leonard sinks onto the couch, stroking Lisa’s hair softly enough that he shouldn’t wake her. He watches her a minute, making sure she’s really asleep instead of faking, then looks at Sara.

“I’m glad you were there for her,” he says.

It’s not enough, not nearly, and he doesn’t let himself overthink it when he scoots closer so he can put one arm around Sara and drape the other over Lisa. Sara leans into his shoulder, and it’s not like they don’t get closer than this every night in their sleep (and without a kid between them, either), but Leonard feels like some of the boundaries they so carefully (if wordlessly) put around themselves have abruptly dissolved.

Things change, after that, to an extent. Much of it is internal, his complete inability to pretend he isn’t in love with her.

But they also start falling asleep together rather than just waking up that way.

Like so many things they’ve agreed on, the first time is wordless. Their eyes meet after they’ve gotten in bed, and Leonard feels that pull toward her that he’s getting much too used to, so when Sara raises an eyebrow, it’s only natural for him to hold out an arm.

She snuggles into his chest almost immediately at the invitation, and he wraps his arm around her shoulder. Just as she fits into the rest of his life, she fits here, too.

It’s only logical, then, that they do the same each night.

It’s not just sleep that’s gotten more physical, either. They lean into each other, both literally and emotionally, at gatherings with their friends and her family.

She squeezes his hand in thanks when he makes dinner.

He kisses her temple when she falls asleep reading Harry Potter to Lisa.

By the time the final interviews are rolling around, Leonard has no doubts about the fact that the social workers see a stable, loving, married couple.

It’s what they are, despite the lack of sex.

Leonard finally, officially gets permanent custody on a random Friday about 8 months after marrying Sara. Sara’s just landed a full-time job at her favorite dojo, and she takes them out to dinner to celebrate both achievements, nothing fancy, just pizza followed by ice cream.

He’s pretty sure he’s never had a better dinner in his life than the one with his little family.

After Lisa’s asleep, they’re playing cards in the kitchen, and Sara grins up at him when beating him in a hand (never mind the fact that he’s still far in the lead), and Leonard’s restraint finally snaps.

He leans forward and kisses her, gently, ready to pull back if he’s misread everything, if she thinks this is as horrible an idea as it would’ve been when this whole thing started.

She kisses him back for several seconds, their lips sliding easily against each other, then pulls back, and Leonard readies his walls, prepares for a (kind, probably, he hopes) rejection.

“I love you, Len,” she whispers instead, grinning when he gapes at her confession. “Let’s go to bed.”

He has to kiss her again first, because it would be impossible not to, and because she doesn’t seem to need to hear the words, but he wants to make sure she _feels_ them.

And he makes sure she does, not just that night, but every day for the rest of their lives, through the bad times and the good. When Lisa’s old enough, her eye on some geeky kid Leonard can’t help but antagonize when he gets a chance, he tells her the whole story.

Lisa, of course, just smirks. “There was probably a less convoluted way to get me a new big sister, Lenny.”

“Probably,” he admits, looking to where his wife is practicing martial arts forms in the living room, “but where would be the fun in that?”


End file.
